CSM Bakery Supplies North America (CSM BSNA) Schaumburg, Ill., said it expects in March to acquire Best Brands Corp., a Minnetonka, Minn.-based supplier of frozen bakery goods and bakery ingredients to retail in-store bakeries. Terms were not disclosed.

Officials say the deal will give CSM BSNA more than $2.3 billion in annual sales to the foodservice and in-store bakery channels. It will unite such brands as Brill, Caravan and BakeMark and Baker&Baker with Best Brands, Multifoods, Telco and Fantasia. Best Brands has six production facilities.

"I am very excited about the prospect of Best Brands joining forces with CSM and Brill," said Bret Weaver, HC Brill president. "Both organizations have a tremendous passion for the baking industry and both operate under a highly service- and performance-oriented culture."

Officials say Best Brands started in 1971 as a distributor of bakery ingredients and supplies. The company  began manufacturing its own fillings, icings, mixes and bases in 1975. Frozen doughs and batters were added in 1991. Best Brands acquired Multifoods Bakery Products in 2005. The following year, it purchased Telco Food Products, a supplier of frozen retail-ready brownies, bundt and loaf cakes.

CSM BSNA is a unit of CSM nv, Amerstam, The Netherlands. CSM says it is the largest supplier of bakery products worldwide and a global market leader in lactic acid and lactic acid derivatives, through its Purac subsidiary. CSM operates in business-to-business markets throughout Europe, North America, South America, and Asia, generates annual sales of euro 2.6 billion and has a workforce of around 8,450 employees in 25 countries.